The Viceroy of Ouidah - by Bruce Chatwin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Bruce Chatwin's debut novel: "Conrad's Heart of Darkness seen through a microscope" (The Atlantic)

In this vivid, powerful novel, Chatwin tells of Francisco Manoel de Silva, a poor Brazilian adventurer who sails to Dahomey in West Africa to trade for slaves and amass his fortune. His plans exceed his dreams, and soon he is the Viceroy of Ouidah, master of all slave trading in Dahomey. But the ghastly business of slave trading and the open savagery of life in Dahomey slowly consume Manoel's wealth and sanity.

Review Quotes

"Dazzles and mystifies, with its lush anger, its impacted memory, its gorgeous desolation."
--The New York Times

"A vivid, lush, seductive book that absolutely captures the look and light and life of the Brazilian wastelands and the hot, breathless African Slave Coast jungles. What an imagination Bruce Chatwin has!"--The Wall Street Journal

"Chatwin has a powerfully visual and aural style; sights and sounds crowd his sentences to the point that the book almost breathes."--The New Yorker

"Chatwin's book is both a luminous historical document and an exploitation of the surreal past. The author's talent for invoking history's black magic is evident."--Time

About the Author

Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989) was the author of In Patagonia, The Viceroy of Ouidah, On the Black Hill, The Songlines, and Utz. His other books are What Am I Doing Here and Anatomy of Restlessness, posthumous anthologies of shorter works, and Far Journeys, a collection of his photographs that also includes selections from his travel notebooks.